


Beyond Counting

by TheArtsDemon



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 00:27:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6031399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArtsDemon/pseuds/TheArtsDemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Cullen was left with a scar, and one time he was not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beyond Counting

The statue killed a man once, or so they whisper. He climbs it with his wooden sword in hand, and sternly orders stone not to move again, just as a precaution. Mia tells him that it devours little boys who refuse to listen to their big sisters, and anyway, mother expects them home for supper soon. He crosses his arms defiantly, and sounds ever so daring when he says he will take that chance. He does not account for the loss of balance, and slips from the statue’s shoulders, flailing.

Mother’s reprimand is worse than the injury in the end, and curly hair covers the scar soon enough. Sometimes Cullen rubs the back of his head, and remembers the day.

-

The training sword is not meant to injure, but at times clumsiness can be as dangerous an opponent as prowess. Beval trips and crashes into him with all his weight, forceful enough for even a blunted edge to draw blood. He tells Cullen that he planned it just like that, and expects commendations for the masterful new technique. Instead their knight-captain finds little merriment in two recruits sprawled on the floor laughing, and they spend the rest of the afternoon running laps in full armor.

The scar it leaves was always small, and over the years it seems to fade further still. Cullen is afraid that it will be gone entirely one day.

-

Beval’s eyes are milky and dead, terror etched into them wide. The sight remains even when Cullen makes himself look away. At first he hears the screams, too, but Uldred’s laughter drowns them all, eventually.

The weeks leave not a single scar on his skin.

-

Kirkwall seems to come into chaos naturally, as if the calm was deviation that needed to be fought. He never trained for this, but his Templar shield blocks a Qunari spear as well as it blocks anything else. It blocks the explosion at his back poorly. But back in his room at the Gallows his lyrium kit lies open, used just before he crossed the water. Until the fighting is done he forgets that he is meant to be in pain.

The burn scars over coarse and dark, because ointments can only do so much. Because rest is not for them, and because Cullen refuses to let the spirit healer’s hands near him.

-

Meredith’s glove cuts sharply into his lip, and the force sends him reeling to the ground. He pushes himself to his feet, and raises his blade against her. The first time he did she called him a foolish boy. Now she only snarls with rage, but glowing eyes repeat the insult silently. Blood drips down on his breastplate and paints the flaming sword red. He raises his blade against her as many times as it takes.

Come dawn he takes off the blood-stained armor, and wonders when he forgot what it feels like to breathe. He smiles weakly when Hawke says that the scar suits him.

-

Many of the Wardens listen to reason, but words are wasted on demons. As he fights Cullen feels his every muscle ache, but he drives his soldiers to hold the line. He prays to Andraste still, but he’s not laid eyes upon her wooden carving inside the lyrium kit for weeks. He needs to believe that this is strength rather than weakness, even when claws sink into his flesh and he cries out in pain.

After the battle Enchanter Ellendra finds him by chance. He makes her tend to the other wounded first, but afterwards she puts her hands on his side, and under the warm glow he watches the red gash disappear.


End file.
